Genesis 31:36
New International Version
Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down?

New Living Translation
Then Jacob became very angry, and he challenged Laban. “What’s my crime?” he demanded. “What have I done wrong to make you chase after me as though I were a criminal?

English Standard Version
Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?

Berean Standard Bible
Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me?

King James Bible
And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me?

New King James Version
Then Jacob was angry and rebuked Laban, and Jacob answered and said to Laban: “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued me?

New American Standard Bible
Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?

NASB 1995
Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?

NASB 1977
Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob answered and said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob answered and said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?

Amplified Bible
Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban. And he said to Laban, “What is my fault? What is my sin that you pursued me like this?

Christian Standard Bible
Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. “What is my crime? ” he said to Laban. “What is my sin, that you have pursued me?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. “What is my crime?” he said to Laban. “What is my sin, that you have pursued me?

American Standard Version
And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast hotly pursued after me?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And it displeased Yaquuv, and he argued with Laban and Yaquuv answered and said to Laban, “What is my crime, and what is my fault that you have chased after me?

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Jacob was angry, and strove with Laban; and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my injustice, and what my sin, that thou hast pursued after me,

Contemporary English Version
Jacob became very angry and said to Laban: What have I done wrong? Have I committed some crime? Is that why you hunted me down?

Douay-Rheims Bible
And jacob being angry, said in a chiding manner: For what fault of mine, and for what offense on my part hast thou so hotly pursued me,

English Revised Version
And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast hotly pursued after me?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then Jacob became angry and confronted Laban. "What is my crime?" Jacob demanded of Laban. "What is my offense that you have come chasing after me?

Good News Translation
Then Jacob lost his temper. "What crime have I committed?" he asked angrily. "What law have I broken that gives you the right to hunt me down?

International Standard Version
Then Jacob got angry and started an argument with Laban. "What have I done?" he demanded. "What's my crime that would cause you to come pursue me so violently?

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Jacob was wroth, and strove with Laban. And Jacob answered and said to Laban: 'What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast hotly pursued after me?

Literal Standard Version
And it is displeasing to Jacob, and he strives with Laban; and Jacob answers and says to Laban, “What [is] my transgression? What my sin, that you have burned after me?

Majority Standard Bible
Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me?

New American Bible
Jacob, now angered, confronted Laban and demanded, “What crime or offense have I committed that you should hound me?

NET Bible
Jacob became angry and argued with Laban. "What did I do wrong?" he demanded of Laban. "What sin of mine prompted you to chase after me in hot pursuit?

New Revised Standard Version
Then Jacob became angry, and upbraided Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?

New Heart English Bible
Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, "What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me?

Webster's Bible Translation
And Jacob was wroth, and chid with Laban: and Jacob answered, and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so eagerly pursued after me?

World English Bible
Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?

Young's Literal Translation
And it is displeasing to Jacob, and he striveth with Laban; and Jacob answereth and saith to Laban, 'What is my transgression? what my sin, that thou hast burned after me?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Laban Pursues Jacob
35Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols. 36Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me? 37You have searched all my goods! Have you found anything that belongs to you? Put it here before my brothers and yours, that they may judge between the two of us.…

Cross References
Genesis 31:35
Rachel said to her father, "Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period." So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.

Genesis 31:37
You have searched all my goods! Have you found anything that belongs to you? Put it here before my brothers and yours, that they may judge between the two of us.

Numbers 20:3
The people quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had perished with our brothers before the LORD!

1 Samuel 20:32
"Why must he be put to death?" Jonathan replied. "What has he done?"


Treasury of Scripture

And Jacob was wroth, and strived with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued after me?

was wroth.

Genesis 30:2
And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

Genesis 34:7
And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done.

Genesis 49:7
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

Jump to Previous
Angry Argued Burned Chid Chode Committed Contended Crime Displeasing Disputed Eagerly Fault Hotly Hunt Jacob Laban Offense Passion Pursued Sin Striveth Strove Task Transgression Trespass Upbraided Wroth
Jump to Next
Angry Argued Burned Chid Chode Committed Contended Crime Displeasing Disputed Eagerly Fault Hotly Hunt Jacob Laban Offense Passion Pursued Sin Striveth Strove Task Transgression Trespass Upbraided Wroth
Genesis 31
1. Jacob, displeased with the envy of Laban and his sons, departs secretly.
19. Rachel steals her father's household gods.
22. Laban pursues after him, and complains of the wrong.
34. Rachel's plan to hide the images.
36. Jacob's complaint of Laban.
43. The covenant of Laban and Jacob at Galeed.














(36) Jacob was wroth.--Naturally he regarded the accusation about the teraphim as a mere device for searching his goods, and when nothing was found gave free vent to his indignation.

Verses 36-42. - And Jacob was wroth, - literally, and it burned, sc. with indignation (same word as used by Rachel, ver. 35), to Jacob, i.e. he was infuriated at what he believed to be Laban's unjustifiable insinuation about his lost teraphim - and chode - or contended; the fundamental signification of the root, רוּב or רִיב, being to seize or tear, e.g. the hair, hence to strive with the bands (Deuteronomy 33:7), or with words (Psalm 103:9). The two verbs, וַתִּחַר and וַיָּרֶב, give a vivid representation of the exasperation which Jacob felt - with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, - in words characterized by "verbosity and self-glorification" (Kalisch), or "acute, sensibility and elevated self-consciousness (Delitzsch, Keil), according as one inclines to an unfavorable or favorable view of Jacob's character - What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? The intensity of Jacob s feeling imparts to his language a rythmical movement, and leads to the selection of poetical forms of expression, such as דָּלַק אַחֲרֵי, to burn after, in the sense of fiercely persecuting, which occurs again only in 1 Samuel 17:53 (vide Gesenius and Furst, sub voce; and cf. Keil, in lose), causing the reader at times to catch "the dance and music of actual verse" (Ewald). Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, - literally (so. What is my sin) that thou hast felt all my articles (LXX., Kalisch)? the clause being co-ordinate with the preceding; though by others כִּי is taken as equivalent to כַּאֲשֶׁר, quando quidem, since (A.V., Ainsworth), or quando, when (Calvin, Murphy) - what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here Before my brethren and thy brethren (i.e. Laban's kinsmen who accompanied him, who were also of necessity kinsmen to Jacob), that they may judge betwixt us both - which of us has injured the other. This twenty years have I been with thee (vide infra, vet. 41); thy ewes (רָחֵל, a ewe, whence Rachel) and thy she goats - עֵן a she-goat; cf. Sanscrit, adsha, a he-goat; adsha, a she-goat; Goth., gaitsa; Anglo-Saxon, gat; German, geis; Greek, αἵξ; Turkish, gieik (Gesenius, sub voce) - have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. Roberts says that the people of the East do not eat female sheep except when sterile, and that it would be considered folly and prodigality in the extreme to eat that which has the power of producing more (vide 'Oriental Illustrations,' p. 37). That which was torn of beasts (טְרֵפָה, a coll. fem., from טָרַפ, to tear in pieces, meaning that which is torn in pieces, hence cattle destroyed by wild beasts) I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; - אֲחֶטַּנָּה, literally, I made expiation for it, the piel of חָטָא, signifying to make atonement for a thing by sacrifice (Leviticus 9:15), or by compensation, as here; hence "I bare the loss it" (Rashi, equivalent to cf. Furst), or ἐγὼ ἀπετίννουν (LXX.), or, perhaps, "I will be at the loss of it, or pay it back" (Kalisch) - of my hand didst thou require it, - otherwise, "of my hand require it" (Kalisch) - whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Without adhering literally to the text, the LXX. give the sense of this and the preceding clause as being, "From my own I paid back the stolen by day and the stolen by night." Thus I was; (i.e. I was in this condition that) in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night קֶרַח, ice, so called from its smoothness, hence cold. The alternation of heat and cold in many eastern countries is very great and severely felt by shepherds, travelers, and watchmen, who require to pass the night in the open air, and who in consequence are often obliged to wear clothes lined with skins (cf. Psalm 121:6; Jeremiah 36:30). "The thermometer at 24° Fahr. at night, a lump of solid ice in our basins in the morning, and then the scorching heat of the day drawing up the moisture, made the neighborhood, convenient as it was, rather a fever-trap, and premonitory symptoms warned us to move" (Tristram, 'The Land of Moab,' p. 217). "The night air at Joaiza was keen and cold; indeed there was a sharp frost, and ice appeared on all the little pools about the camp" (Thomson, 'The Land and the Book,' p. 364). "Does a master reprove his servant for being idle; he will ask, "What can I do? the heat eats me up by day, and the cold eats me up by night'" (Roberts 'Oriental Illustrations,' p. 37; cf. Paxton's 'Illustrations,' vol. 1. p. 30). And my sleep departed from mine eyes. Syrian shepherds were compelled to watch their flocks often both night and day, and for a whole month together, and repair into long plains and deserts without any shelter; and when reduced to this incessant labor, they were besides chilled by the piercing cold of the morning, and scorched by the succeeding heats of a flaming sun, the opposite action of which often swells and chafes their lips and face" (Paxton's 'Illustrations of Scripture,' vol. 1. p. 30). Thus have I been - literally, this to me (or for myself, vide infra) - twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle. The majority of expositors understand the twenty years referred to in ver. 38 to be the same as the twenty spoken of here as consisting of fourteen and six. Dr. Kennicott, regarding the twenty years of ver. 38 as having intervened between the fourteen and the six of ver. 41, makes the entire period of Jacob's sojourn in Padan-aram to have been forty years. In support of this he contends -

(1) that the particle זֶה, twice repeated (in ver. 38 and in ver. 41), may be legitimately rendered, "This (one) twenty years I was with thee" (ver. 38), i.e. taking care of thy flocks; and "this for myself (another) twenty years in thy house," i.e. serving for thy daughters and thy cattle (cf. Exodus 14:20; Job 21:23, 25; Ecclesiastes 6:5);

(2) that on this hypothesis more time is afforded for the birth of Jacob's family, viz. twenty-seven years instead of seven; and

(3) that it relieves the narrative of certain grave chronological difficulties in connection with Judah and his family, which, on the supposition of the shorter period, subsequently emerge, such as that Judah and his sons must have been quite children when they married (vide Genesis 38:1-11). But, on the other hand, in favor of the accepted chronology it may be urged -

(1) that the interposition of a second twenty years in the middle of the first is unnatural;

(2) that, though legitimate, the proposed rendering of זֶה does not at first sight suggest itself as that which Jacob intended;

(3) that it is not impossible for Jacob's family to have been born in the short space of seven years (vide Genesis 27:1; Genesis 30:35);

(4) that in reality the difficulties connected with Judah and his sons are not removed by the hypothesis of a forty years' sojourn in Padan-aram any more than by a sojourn of only twenty years, since Judah must have married either after the sale of Joseph, in which case only twenty-two years remain for the birth and marriage of Er and Onan, for Pharez and Zarah, Judah's children by Tamar, to grow to manhood, and for Pharez to have two sons, Hezron and Hamul, before descending to Egypt, unless indeed, as Kurtz supposes, Judah's grandchildren were born in Egypt; or before the sale of Joseph - indeed, if Hezron and Hamul were born in Canaan, before the birth of Joseph, i.e. while Judah was yet in Padan-aram, which is contrary to the narrative (vide Genesis 38:1, 2). For these reasons, though adopted by some excellent authorities (Bishop Horsley, Adam Clarke, 'Speaker's Commentary,' Inglis), the computation of Dr. Kennicott does not appear of sufficient weight to set aside the ordinary reckoning, which is followed by interpreters of equal credit (Keil, Kalisch, Kurtz, Lange, Murphy, Wordsworth). And thou hast changed my wages ten times (vide ver. 7). Except (לוּלֵי, if not, i.e. unless, introducing the protasis of the sentence) the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, - i.e. the object of Isaac's fear, not "terror" (Oort and Kuenen, vide 'The Bible for Young People,' vol. 1. p. 243), viz. God; פַּחַד being used metonymically of that which inspires reverence or fear, like σέβας and σέβασμα. The entire clause is a periphrasis for Jehovah of ver. 3, which is usually ascribed to the Jehovist, while the present verse belongs, it is alleged, to the fundamental document - had been with - or, for (cf. Psalm 124:1, 2) - me (during the whole period of my sojurn in Padan-aram, but especially during the last six years), surely (כִּי, then, commencing the apodosis) thou hadst sent me away now empty (as by thy stratagem in changing my wages thou didst design; but) God hath seen mine affliction (cf. Genesis 29:32; Exodus 3:7) and the labor - especially that which is wearisome, from a root signifying to toil with effort so as to become fatiguing (cf. Job 39:11) - of my hands, and rebuked - i.e. reproved, sc. thee, as in Genesis 21:25 (LXX., Vulgate, A.V., Calvin, Ainsworth, Lange, Kalisch, and others); or judged, sc. it, i.e. mine affliction, in the sense of pronouncing an opinion or verdict on it, as in 1 Chronicles 12:17 (Keil, Murphy); or proved, sc. it, viz. that he had seen my affliction (Dathius, Peele); or decided, sc. betwixt us, as in ver. 37 (Furst, Gesenius) thee yester-night.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then Jacob
לְיַעֲקֹ֖ב (lə·ya·‘ă·qōḇ)
Preposition-l | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3290: Jacob -- a son of Isaac, also his desc

became incensed
וַיִּ֥חַר (way·yi·ḥar)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 2734: To glow, grow warm, to blaze up, of anger, zeal, jealousy

and challenged
וַיָּ֣רֶב (way·yā·reḇ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7378: To toss, grapple, to wrangle, controversy, to defend

Laban.
בְּלָבָ֑ן (bə·lā·ḇān)
Preposition-b | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3837: Laban -- father-in-law of Jacob

“What
מַה־ (mah-)
Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

is my crime?”
פִּשְׁעִי֙ (piš·‘î)
Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 6588: Transgression

he
יַעֲקֹב֙ (ya·‘ă·qōḇ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3290: Jacob -- a son of Isaac, also his desc

said.
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר (way·yō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

“For what
מַ֣ה (mah)
Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

sin of mine
חַטָּאתִ֔י (ḥaṭ·ṭā·ṯî)
Noun - feminine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 2403: An offence, its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, expiation, an offender

have you so hotly pursued
דָלַ֖קְתָּ (ḏā·laq·tā)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 1814: To burn, hotly pursue

me?
אַחֲרָֽי׃ (’a·ḥă·rāy)
Preposition | first person common singular
Strong's 310: The hind or following part


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OT Law: Genesis 31:36 Jacob was angry and argued with Laban (Gen. Ge Gn)
Genesis 31:35
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